Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan Includes Medicaid Family Planning Provision

As President Obama's $825 billion stimulus package heads to the floor of the House of Representatives this week, some Republican lawmakers are criticizing parts of the plan, the New York Times reports (Otterman, New York Times, 1/26). House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) specifically expressed concerns with a provision to allow states to expand Medicaid coverage of family planning services, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Immediately following Obama's meeting with Congress, Boehner said, "How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended the spending on family planning services, saying that such initiatives would "reduce cost" and that states are "in a terrible fiscal budget crisis right now...and what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements, are to help the states meet their financial needs" (Coile, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/26).


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